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Greetings All,

Have a question. Tomorrow I start interviewing potential admins. This is the first one I've had to hire an admin in probably 7 years. Any suggestions anyone may have, or questions I should ask during the interviews? Also any podcasts I should listen to? I have listened to the three parter on relating to admins. Great stuff for sure.

Thanks for all your help!

Dave

jhack's picture

The interviewing series (and the extras on the weakness question, leadership style, etc).

The registered members podcast for June 07 is particularly good for your situation - how to prepare to interview someone.

Last point: make sure your questions elicit details of what the admin DID, how they did it, etc. Theory is insufficient. It's all about what they did.

John

dmbaldwin's picture

Thanks John.

I have the podcast up and listening to it now.

Dave

juliahhavener's picture
Licensee Badge

Dave,

I recommend the 'Quick and Dirty Interview' cast. While I have a prepared interviewing instrument that I like, the information from that podcast lets me walk into every interview feeling prepared.

On a side note: Have lots of energy. I find that interviewing people is just as taxing on my side of the table as it is on theirs.

wendii's picture
Admin Role Badge

Hi Dave

From my handy dandy set of standard questions;

*Can you tell me about a situation you have been in when you had to communicate with a number of people at varying levels. How did you adapt your style to reflect the different needs?

*Describe a great team you have worked in. What do you think made if effective? What did you like about it? What did you learn from the experience?

*Over the last year what do you consider to be your main achievements? What difficulties did you encounter? How did you overcome these?

*Give me an example of a time when you have managed a number of priorities simultaneously. How did you manage this situation? What was successful/unsuccessful?

*How do you maintain your personal standards when under pressure? How do you deal with pressure?

*Tell me of an occasion when you anticipated change and talk me through how you dealt with it in order to implement the change.

*Tell me about a time when you solved a problem and you had to convince someone to work differently. How did you go about convincing them?

*What's the biggest setback/failure you've had at work? How did you deal with it? How will you prevent it happening again?

*How do you manage your own development? What actions have you taken to enhance your development in the last 12 months?

*How do you establish the skills needed to carry out a role? What will you do to ensure you gain them?

*Who are your current customers? How do you go about establishing their needs and how do you know you have satisfied them?

And then technical questions such as:

*Have you used xyz package and if so how much?
*Do you have xyz skills and if so, how much do you use them currently?

I hope that helps,

Wendii

dmbaldwin's picture

Wendii & Julia,

Thanks so much for the advice. I'm almost done with the one podcast John reccomended yesterday. I'll get the other one in before interviewing today. I love the questions too!

Thanks again. I'll let you all know how things go.

Dave

dmbaldwin's picture

So, things went really well. The two podcasts were invaluable and the questions you gave me Wendii really helped. I now have a new admin.

Thanks to you all!

Blessings,

Dave

jhack's picture

Well done, and thanks for the update!

John